


Acceptable Gifts

by tornyourdress



Category: Have I Got News For You RPF
Genre: Extramarital Affairs, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:15:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24444934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tornyourdress/pseuds/tornyourdress
Summary: There are the real Christmas presents, and then there are the safe ones that wives and girlfriends know about.
Relationships: Ian Hislop/Paul Merton
Kudos: 6





	Acceptable Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> Written for krazy_kritter, spring 2005.   
> (The reference to a certain Tory MP has not aged well. *shudders*)

Novelty ties were acceptable gifts for Christmas, provided they didn’t seem too expensive. In fact, it was best if they looked as if they had been picked up at the last minute, good for a joke, but nothing more, funny and cute and seasonally appropriate, but not the sort of thing one would ever wear. Those were the sort of gifts that wives and girlfriends were allowed to know about.

Ian looked at the snowflake tie, wondering if he could get away with wearing it in springtime. It wasn’t that obvious a pattern, and he doubted anyone except Paul would notice. Perhaps not even Paul, but then again, what was the point if Paul didn’t notice? He wanted Paul to see it, and to smile.

It was silly, really, because the real gifts had been exchanged a few weeks before Christmas, unwrappable things like love and mind-blowing sex and crazy, shameful fantasies being acted out (Ian still had to bite his lip when he thought about Paul in a blond wig and impersonating one certain Tory MP), and the ties were just – the public presents, the ones that it was safe for people to know about.

The thing was, though, that even though he’d known the tie he was buying for Paul wasn’t the real present, he’d still wandered around for hours, searching for one that was just right, feeling like a bit like Goldilocks, really. All the ties were too gaudy or too sedate or too meaningless or too cheap, until he found one that was just right.

He didn’t even know whether Paul had put that kind of effort into buying his tie. He didn’t know whether he’d even remember that this was the tie that had been wrapped up nice and neatly and placed under the Christmas tree. For all he knew, wearing it as a gesture of love or devotion or even friendship might be something that would be completely lost on Paul, and he’d have spent all the time fussing over it for nothing.

He wore it. Paul’s eyes flashed over it before they went on. “A bit late for snowflakes, isn’t it?”

Ian said nothing. He had fussed for absolutely no reason, after all. Not that he was disappointed. Well. Perhaps a little.

“Would’ve worn mine if I’d known,” Paul said casually.

Ian grinned.


End file.
